Didjaredit & Didjawatchit or didjasleep?

1.What happened to St. Patrick when he was 16?2.How many people were kidnapped with Patrick?

a. 6b. 50c. 100d. 500e. 1000s

3.How did Patrick feel about his educational background?4.When did Patrick first “find God” in his life?5.What happened when Patrick first attempted to board the boat back home to Britain? 6.How did God respond to Patrick when he prayed for the men traveling with him who were starving?7.A man named Victorious appeared to Patrick and begged Patrick to do what?8.How did Patrick’s good friend betray him to the British Bishops?9.What is the “Breastplate” of St. Patrick? (a one-word answer will suffice.)10.What happened in the movie to finally convert the Irish King to God?

Extra credit: According to the Confessio, how many times was Patrick abducted and taken captive?

ASSIGNMENT:

• Read life & poems of St. Columban for tomorrow. Download online – class files in folder for test #1.

First, a little background about IRELAND

• Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic to the west of Great Britain, from which it is separated by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St Georges Channel, and after which it is the largest island of the British Isles archipelago (archipelago = a group of islands). It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth.

• Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, which covers the remaining area and is located in the north-east of the island.

• Traditionally, Ireland is subdivided into four provinces: Connacht (west), Leinster (east), Munster (south), and Ulster (north). In a system that developed between the 13th and 17th centuries. Ireland has 32 traditional counties. Twenty-six of these counties are in the Republic of Ireland and six are in Northern Ireland. The six counties that constitute Northern Ireland are all in the province of Ulster (which has nine counties in total).

• In the Republic of Ireland (unlike Northern Ireland), counties form the basis of the system of local government.

• Two main languages are spoken in Ireland: Irish and English. • Erin is a Hiberno-English (or Irish-English) derivative of the Irish

word "Éirinn". "Éirinn" is the dative case of the Irish word for Ireland. “Erin Go Bragh” means “Ireland Forever!”

• The island's geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild but changeable oceanic climate, which avoids extremes in temperature. Thick woodlands covered the island during Patrick’s time and last until the Middle Ages. Now only 11% of the island is covered in woodlands.

During Patrick’s Time…

• The Romans came to refer Ireland by its Latinised form, Hibernia or Scotia.

• The language spoken during Patrick’s time was morphing into “Old Irish.”

• Patrick and Columban (we’ll study him next) brought literacy to the people of Ireland during the Dark Ages (after the fall of Rome.)

• Ireland was patchwork of rival kingdoms but, beginning in the 7th century AD, a concept of national kingship gradually became articulated through the concept of a High King of Ireland. Thus there was no “high king” of Ireland during Patrick’s time…rather many kings of smaller kingdoms.

Video

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0q-_gWOYjY

ST. PATRICK OF IRELAND• Saint Patrick (Latin: Patricius; Modern Irish: Pádraig)

was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland.

• Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of the island along with Saints Brigit and Columba.

Popular Pilgrimage spot - “Slieve William” in Ireland during June. Built to celebrate the 1500th Anniversary of Patrick’s arrival in Ireland.

Patrick: The Man & the Myth• Patrick, originally named Maewyn Succat, was born in 387 AD in

southwestern Britain to noble and wealthy parents Calpernius and Conchessa. He lived a childhood in his father’s villa and as any other of the day and engaged in the sins that young people do. He confessed these sins to a beloved friend who later in life exposed him and cast question upon his legitimacy as Bishop of Ireland.

• Kidnapped by Irish pirates at sixteen, he spent six years as a slave tending sheep in County Mayo near Sligo.

• During his time in captivity Saint Patrick became fluent in the Irish language and culture.

• As he states in the Confessio, it is during this time he grew to know and love God.

• Patrick probably made his escape from Mayo to the coast of Wexford and returned home to Britain.

• On his way back to Britain Saint Patrick was captured again and spent 60 days in captivity in Tours, France. During his short captivity within France, Saint Patrick learned about French monasticism. At the end of his second captivity Saint Patrick had a vision of Victoricus giving him the quest of bringing Christianity to Ireland.

• Following his second captivity Saint Patrick returned to Ireland and, using the knowledge of Irish language and culture that he gained during his first captivity, increased Christianity and monasticism in Ireland in the form of more than 300 churches and over 100,000 Irish baptized.

• Upon his return, it is believed Patrick studied in a monastery in Gaul (France) under a famous Bishop, Germanus from Auxerre in Gaul. Some scholars believe Patrick never went to Gaul but studied in Britain.

• Patrick was not sent to Ireland by the Pope, but by church authority in Britain.

• The 17 of March, popularly known today as St. Patrick's Day, is believed to be his death date and is the date celebrated as his Feast Day.

• St. Patrick is said to be buried at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down, alongside St. Brigid and St. Columba, although this has never been proven.

St. Patrick’s Isle just off Peel, by oral tradition, is where St. Patrick landed and made his “head quarters” as he witnessed to the Manx people.

Allegedly there is a stone here with two round holes in it where Patrick put his knees when he first knelt on Irish land upon his return.

• Patrick did not introduce Christianity to Ireland. Rather he kindled the fire of Christianity and was responsible for the conversion of thousands to the faith.

• In 431, before Patrick began preaching in Ireland, Pope Celestine reportedly sent a bishop known as Palladius “to the Irish believing in Christ”—an indication that some residents of the Emerald Isle had already converted by then.

• Patrick wore no miter as they weren't invented for another 500 years

• Patrick never met a High-King at Tara as there were no High Kings in Ireland during his lifetime.

Croagh Patrick In County Mayo• Croagh (pronounced “crow”) Patrick in County Mayo was a sacred

place before Christianity arrived there. Ancient Celts considered it one of the principal sites for the harvest festival of Lughnasa. According to tradition, St. Patrick allegedly spent 40 days and nights on the summit banishing snakes, dragons and demons. Today almost one million pilgrims climb to the summit each year.

So many myths – what is true?• Upon Patrick's arrival in Ireland, he led a successful mission,

anointing clergy and baptizing thousands. • An outcast among the stratified classes of Irish society he endured

many hardships and wrote "I daily expect either assassination or trickery or reduction to slavery".

• The defining event of Patrick's life was his abduction. Ripped from a comfortable upbringing and forced into servitude, Patrick never recovered from the trauma. Upon his return to Britain many of his friends had gone on to fine educations and prominence whereas Patrick, an outsider as a slave in Ireland, became an outsider in his home society. To his dismay, Patrick was neither a great orator nor did he have a facility with the written word. He wrote late in life "that is why I am now ashamed and am seriously afraid of revealing my unskillfulness, the fact that I cannot hold forth in speech to cultivated people in exact language." As an older man he still regarded himself as a "poor ignorant orphan" and an "exile and refugee" who was "very little educated".

• After returning as Bishop to the land that had once considered him a slave, he never left again, becoming more closely identified with the Irish people than the British.

• Patrick wrote only two documents which can be found in The Book of Armagh which is kept in Trinity College, Dublin. It is a 9th century manuscript written in Latin. The document is valuable for containing early texts relating to St Patrick and some of the oldest surviving specimens of Old Irish, and for being one of the earliest manuscripts produced by an insular church to contain a near complete copy of the New Testament. Significant sections (even pages) are missing.

• The Book of Armagh contains his Confessio which is the earliest piece of writing in Irish history. The Book of Armagh also contains a copy of his letter to Coroticus: he was a prince whose soldiers had carried off a number of newly converted Christians and sold them as slaves.

Page from the Book of Armagh.

Illustration from the book showing Celtic Knotwork:

Augustine’s Confessions Vs. Patrick’s Confessio

• Both are Theological• Both written to glorify God, proclaim their faith,

humble themselves as sinners and inspire others to convert.

• Augustine’s addressed to God. Patrick’s addressed to the people of Ireland in order to build foundation for future of his ministry before he died.

• Augustine high intellectual with deeply philosophical writing – very long. Patrick’s presentation simple and not overly learned – very short!

Why Was He Accepted?• Patrick did not enjoy much influence in Irish society and in

many ways, it was the similarity of the Christian myth to existing pagan beliefs that gradually made converts of the Irish people.

• Both systems believed in a supreme spirit and taught survival of the soul after death.

• The pagan druids had a spirit named "Hesus" who, being associated with the oak tree, was remarkably similar to Jesus on the cross.

• They also had worshipped an old goddess Maire – and thus the idea of Mary was easier to grasp.

• Once Christianity took hold through Patrick’s mission work, the older druid tradition collapsed in the face of the new religion.

LEGENDS

Pious legend credits St. Patrick with banishing snakes from the island, however all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes.

There are probably at least two sources for the snakes which Patrick "drove" out of Ireland. A symbol for the goddess worship practiced in Ireland prior to Christianity was the snake or serpent. The conversion of Ireland to Christianity symbolically banished the "snake" from the land.

Secondly, the bloody cult of Crom Cruaich in County Caven demanded human sacrifice to a serpent deity and the dismantling of this cult by Christianity is now remembered as the "snakes being driven from Ireland."

The Battle for the Body of Patrick• "There was a rising of battle, and a cause of dissension in the province

contending for the body of Patrick after his death. The Uí Néill and the Airgíalla attempting to bring it to Armagh; the Ulaid to keep it with themselves.

• And the Uí Néill and the Oirghialla came to a certain water, and the river swelled against them so that they were not able to cross it in consequence of the greatness of the flood. When the flood had subsided these hosts united on terms of peace, i.e. the Ui Neill and the Ulaid, to bring the body of Patrick with them. It appeared to each of them that each had the body conveying it to their respective territories, so that God separated them in this manner, without a fight or battle.

• The body of Patrick was afterwards interred at Dun Da Lethglas with great honour and veneration; and during the twelve nights that the religious seniors were watching the body with psalms and hymns, it was not night in Magh Inis or the neighbouring lands, as they thought, but as if it were the full undarkened light of day.

• Of the year of Patrick's death was said: Since Christ was born, a correct enumeration/Four hundred and fair ninety/Three years add to these/Till the death of Patrick, chief Apostle.

Reputed site of burial of Saint Patrick, in churchyard of cathedral in

Downpatrick, Northern Ireland

The Shamrock

• Legend also credits St. Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian belief of 'three divine persons in the one God.

• The shamrock had been seen as sacred in the pre-Christian days in Ireland. Due to its green color and overall shape, many viewed it as representing rebirth and eternal life

• This anecdote about the shamrock first appears in writing in 1726, though it may be older. In pagan Ireland, three was a significant number and the Irish had many triple deities. The triple spiral symbol, or Triskelion, appears at many ancient megalithic and Neolithic sites in Ireland.

St. Paddy’s Day• Until the 1700s, St. Patrick’s Day was a Roman Catholic

feast only observed in Ireland—and without the raucous revelry of today’s celebrations. Instead, the faithful spent the relatively somber occasion in quiet prayer at church or at home.

• That started to change when Irish immigrants living in the United States began organizing parades and other events on March 17 as a show of pride. For many people around the world, St. Patrick’s Day has evolved into a secular ode to Irish culture (or at least an oversimplified version of it), characterized by parties, music and iconic foods…such as corned beef and green beer.

Chicago River on St. Paddy’s Day

“Deer’s Cry”• Other names: Breastplate of St. Patrick,

"Faeth Fiada,” Lorica of St. Patrick, Prayer of St. Patrick

• Saint Patrick's Breastplate is a Christian hymn whose original Old Irish lyrics were traditionally attributed to Saint Patrick during his Irish ministry in the 5th century; however, it was probably actually written later, in the 8th century; although Christian in content, it shows druidic influence.

• It is part of the Liber Hymnorum, a collection of hymns found in two manuscripts kept in Dublin.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGHWiAGpIP0